Upholstery spreader



July 25, 1950 A, [3, HUMAN 2,516,320

' UPHOLSTERY SPREADER Filed Sept. 20, 1946 INVENTOR. fl/onzo 27- Human Alonzo,D;. Human, san fiernardinmbal if. v Applicati6ni$epten ber 20, 1946, Serial Nofcss'jbssj U 1 Claim. ((J1 i-:..lest t 53 '7 1 V The device of the present invention relates 'to means to facilitate the task'of sewing seams and other abutting'and/or adjacent edges of heavily padded upholstery, which because of the fullness and overhanging nature thereof, makes the task of sewing very diflicult.

Ordinarily in this work, one hand is used or required to push aside'the overhanging and thus interfering material, while "the otheris 'used' to dothe sewing. It will be obvious, even to the unskilled and untutored, that this method of procedure is slow, ineflicient, and burdensome, causes unduly high cost in such work because of the slowness thereof, and at the same time, places an undue physical burden upon the upholsterer. In recognition of -the-difliculty involved in work of the above described type,'it iscommon practice among upholsterers to use sticks of wood of pre-cut'le'ngthafid/or similar blocks to push back the interfering material while sewingtakes place.

In contradistinction to the afore described method of overcoming diflicult positions in which to work; and asa result of much"perso'nal experience therewith, Phave-conceived a simple and novel device adapted to hold thickly padded upholstery in a spread position so as to-prevent interference thereof' with 's'ewing subadjacent seams and/or edges.

The device of this invention is easily and quickly installed and extended to push back in terfering material, and after being placed in functional position, is held in such position by the resilient resistance of the material being displaced. The device is automatically held in any given position of adjustment by a rack and dog type of engagement of two adjacent spreader bars, yet is readily released from functional position by mere finger pressure, disengaging such holding means, and natural back pressure of the displaced material operating to collapse the extended spreader bars.

Accordingly, and in the view of the above set forth statement, the prime object of the invention is to provide a simple, easily used, reliable and low cost device to spread upholstered material whereby subacljacent edges thereof are made more readily accessible for sewing than has heretofore been possible.

Among the advantages of the device and use thereof are, simplicity of contruction and ease of application to work, including withdrawal thereof after completion of a task, greater physical ease for an operator, and lower cost of the 2,516,320 f j IIPHOLSTERY l i imifi 'finis'liedprodiict because of less time used in completion ofthe- 'job'." Other objects and'advantages of the invention may appear from the accompanying :drawing, the detailed specification and the subjoined claim. -In-'the drawing':""" 1 Figure 1 is a side-elevational view showing the upholstery spreader'of this invention; and,

Figure 2'is an end view thereof, as seen from the left of Figure 1. .f

Figure 3 is 'a'"transverse sectional elevation taken substantially'on line 3- 3, in Figure 1.;

- Figured is'also '"a-transverse sectional view,

the "figure beingsubstantially that seen along line 44, in'Figure 1. t

Figure 5 is a utility" view showing application of the spreader .to apiece of upholstered fumiture for spreading'and holding back padded material prior to sewing asubadjacent edge.

In the drawing the spreader of this invention is indicated by the reference. character HI,- and comprises a bar I2 having a longitudinally'disposed portionhaving rack teeth Mscut in-what may be 'termedthe under-face 16 thereof; and an angularly disposed :end portion I8haying7a -needle-like terminal 20.

- -=A second bar .22. :of less length than the rack bar I l 2,: and .havingza similar angularly ;disposed end portion 24 and a needle-like terminal 26, is held adjacent the under-face I6 of the bar I2 and is adapted to slide along the under side N5 of the bar l2 by means of a carrier 28 which is substantially rectangular in cross-section and of sufficient length to give stability thereto. The carrier, as shown, fits in the manner of a saddle over the bar 12, the sides 30 encasing the sides of the bar l2 and extending downwardly a distance sufiiciently great to substantially encase the sides 22a and 22b of the bar 22. A subcarrier 34 which is also of rectangular cross-section and of slightly greater dimension than the carrier 28 is snugly fitted over the sides 30 and 32 of the carrier 28 and extends upwardly a distance sufiiciently great to enable a pivot pin 36 to extend through the sides 30 and 32 of the carrier 28 and through the sides 38 and 40 of the subcarrier 34, and medially through the transverse section of the bar 22, thereby bringing the carrier 28, the subcarrier 34 and the bar 22 into hinged relationship while the bar I2 is free to be slidably moved with respect to the hinged elements above named. However, it is to be noted that the end A of the subcarrier is formed with the bottom portion 44 thereof bent upwardly to form a tongue 46 which is adapted to engage the teeth seams 54 more available.

' effect release of the spreader from the Work.

Id of the bar [2 and since the teeth 14 are formed with an inclined face and a vertical face in abutment with the tongue, it is obvious that movement of the bar 22 and the carriers 28 and 34 is limited to one direction as long as the teeth of the rack bar 12 are in engagement with the tongue 46, and the tongue 46 is normally held in such engagement by reason or" the fact that an extensile spring 43 positioned between the inner top surface 50 of the bottom portion of the subcarrie r and the lower face 52 of the bar 22 urges the end B of the subcarrier downwardly in the direction of the arrow C, thereby holding the tongue 46 in engagement with the teeth 14 as above mentioned, since the whole of the subcarrier teeters or rocks upon the pin 36.

The foregoing matter is believed to be inclusive of the physical structure involved in the spreader of this invention. Application or occupational use thereof is shown in Figure 5, here, the spreader is shown inserted in the lower inner faces of an arm chair at about the point of intersection of the arms with the bottom-of the chair, the purpose being to make access to the The points 26 and 25 being inserted in the material 56 after the spreader has been adjusted to the approximate span'between the arms of the chair 58. Thereafter the spreader is widened in further degree to force the material 56 outwardly from a normal! line, which may here be considered as being the dotted line til, thereby uncovering the seam 54 and making possible more rapid sewing with greater ease, comfort and accuracy than if the upholsterer were required to divide effort be-,,

tween sewing with one hand while holding the material 56 back with the other hand.

Upon completion of the job, it is only necessary to move the end B of the subcarrier 34 upwardly in the direction of the arrow D against resistance of the spring 48 to withdraw the tongue 46 from From the preceding description of the construction of my spreader and the statement covering the use thereof, it will appear that I have conceived a simple, practical and novel means to aid an upholsterer in his work with respect to rendering certain parts of upholstered furniture more readily accessible than has heretofore been the case, and with greater physical ease, greater accuracy and workmanship and lower cost as accompaniment features of use thereof.

Having thus described the preferred form of my invention, that which I consider new, is as follows.

I claim:

In an upholstery spreader for access to deeply positioned fabric seams, a pair of bars slidably positioned and in juxtapositioned relationship, each of said bars having a relatively long rectilinear shank and having relatively long inturned and oppositely disposed end portions provided with needle-like terminals, a sleeve extending around said bars in their juxtapositioned relationship, said sleeve being formed of half-portions pivotally joined together and in union with one of said bars whereby the one half-portion thereof is tiltable with respect to each of said bars and slidably movable with respect to one of said bars, ratchet teeth on one of said bars, a tongue extending from one of the half-portions of said sleeve, normally engaging said ratchet teeth so as to fixedly secure said bars in predetermined spread position, and means yieldable under compression to normally urge said tongue into engagement with the teeth of said rack.

ALONZO D. HUMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 633,050 Spenard Sept. 12, 1899 656,467 Miotke Aug. 21, 1900 901,231 Eloy Oct. 13, 1908 1,194,610 Fischer Aug. 15, 1916 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 493,970 Germany Mar. 1'7, 1930 

